The world watches as US avoids the shameful glare (GA Geyer)

[struggle4progress]

By Georgie Anne Geyer
Fri Jun 17, 5:42 PM ET

WASHINGTON -- <snip> One of the family recalled the elder Mayor Daley's consistent opposition to the Vietnam War, a stance that was unusual in his time and certainly among his working-class constituents. The no-nonsense mayor told President Lyndon B. Johnson in no uncertain terms to get out: "When you're dealt a bad hand," Daley was quoted as saying, "get out of the game." <snip>

We have enough to shame us: the sadism and masochism of the Americans in Abu Ghraib (for which only the lowest soldiers paid), the Koran mess at Guantanamo (the military keeps coming up with new figures on who abused the Koran, until it's almost grotesquely comical), and even the horrible beating to death of a clearly innocent Afghan at Bagram in Afghanistan (reports afterward said his legs were "beaten to pulp" by American soldiers).

Guantanamo has become the moral symbol to the world of these depredations. Being on the island of Cuba, it had the status from the beginning of a kind of off-shore illegal and illegitimate den of iniquity. Is holding onto it really so important? Or is it just another of the obscene gestures of this administration toward not only the world, but toward the principles and institutions that historically have defined this country?

The United States has brought charges against only four of the 520 prisoners still held in Guantanamo. I, at least, am not clear on how many of the Gitmo prisoners have genuine cases against them, but we do know that from 80 percent to 90 percent of the Abu Ghraib prisoners are now declared to have been innocent men. We also know that this administration's obsession with the war on terror has led them to turn their backs on many of our most precious values: the rights of even prisoners under the law, the traditional American ban against torture, and our adherence to the Geneva Accords, which were originally hammered out to protect our own soldiers and to gradually introduce and enforce civilized norms of warfare to the rest of the world. <snip>

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ucgg/20050617/cm_ucgg/theworldwatchesasusavoidstheshamefulglare/nc:742

[The Traveler]

1. We have lost the moral high ground

and thereby, much of our influence on the actions of other nations. We can no longer rally the just to a just cause without doubts cast upon our credibility. Before the world, we have soiled our honor.

THAT is what George W. Bush has done for us, brought to us.

[KoKo]

6. Incredible quote: "smacks of tribalism racism" Bush anti-terror policies!

The theory of the administration's Justice Department -- that because the insurgents or terrorists are not connected to a country and government, they should not have any Geneva or other legal rights -- smacks of tribalism, of racism, of a total disregard for what the law really is. The idea that torture is A-OK so long as it ceases short of "organ failure" -- is that what America has come to?

[The Traveler]

7. Good quote

Makes an important point, nicely. Thanks for sharing that one with me.

[Erika]

2. We have also spent over $700,000 on each detainee

for this detainment. We also still have minors there. But Haliburton is building a new prison. You talk about evil, and you got it.

[bemildred]

3. Your link sucks.

And I want to puke every time I see this rewriting of Daley's political views. He was a power hungry political hack, an oligarch. If he opposed the VietNam war, it was solely because it's failure threatened the oligarchy's hold on power. Anybody that saw Chicago in '68 knows exactly who Daley was.
:puke:

[struggle4progress]

4. Link (sorry: forgot to turn off emoticons)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ucgg/20050617/cm_ucgg/theworldwatchesasusavoidstheshamefulglare/nc:742

And Re: yr comment. I generally have little use for GAG: my real idea here was that if GAG is ragging on the Administration about human rights, then the corporate media might really be taking up the issue.

Daley's '68 Chicago was of course unforgettable and unforgiveable -- and all too familiar: another tragic example of an inexcusable decision obtained through the same amoral political calculus that led Johnson to escalate the war (so he wouldn't be red-baited), that led Wallace to drop all progressive promises in favor of segregationist rhethoric (so, as he put it, he wouldn't be "out-n*****'d") ...

[bemildred]

5. Well, it does seem to be the case that the oligarchy has decided

that it's interests are threatened by the Bushite failures.
It would seem that there are fewer options to deal with the
situation now, though, the US is much poorer and weaker than
back then.